High and Low
In Yokohama, wealthy director Kingo Gondo (Toshirô Mifune) wants to buy a majority stake in the shoe factory where he has worked for years. This is to settle the battle of directions raging within the company: some want the company to produce cheap footwear, while others want it to produce only beautiful and modern quality products. Gondo belongs to the latter group. His takeover plans risk falling apart when his driver's son is kidnapped. That was a mistake, as the kidnappers were actually targeting his son. Gondo knows that if he pays the ransom, he will go down financially. Will he pay?
Kurosawa's High and Low, a film adaptation of Ed McBain's detective novel King's Ransom, is not only a suspenseful and dark thriller, but also comments on the great social inequality in post-war Japan. Gondo's posh villa plays as big a role as the slums where the junkies live. In the eyes of Martin Scorsese, this is an ‘essential film that every young filmmaker should see’.
